The subject present invention is in the field of architectural stone panel laminate construction and is even more specifically directed to apparatus and method for providing stone panel laminates consisting of a relatively thin slice of stone adhered to an aluminum honeycomb substrate of previously known type. Examples of such laminate construction are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3 723 233, 3 950 202, 3 963 846, 4 063 982 and 4 822 661.
It has been conventional practice to form stone-honeycomb laminates by first providing a workpiece consisting of a honeycomb-stone-honeycomb laminate in which a stone slab is positioned between two honeycomb substrates adhered to opposite outer sides of the stone slab. Such workpieces are then separated into a pair of stone-honeycomb laminate structures by cutting through the original stone slab from one edge midway between the opposite outer surfaces thereof to which the honeycomb structures are adhered. Such cutting operation has been previously effected in a variety of ways including the use of a circular saw having a large circular blade mounted on a carriage which reciprocates back and forth across the slab while the saw carriage support moves toward the slab; other circular saws simply make a single pass through the slab. Thus, the circular saw cuts downwardly through the middle of the stone slab of the honeycomb-stone-honeycomb workpiece sandwich laminate. Some circular saws have been used in conjunction with suction pads provided on opposite sides of a honeycomb-stone-honeycomb laminate resting on its lower edge surface for holding the laminate in a transversely stable position such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4 063 982, 4 346 691, 4 436 078 and 4 360 562. However, circular saw devices of the foregoing type are limited in the size of slab through which they can cut in a single pass since the maximum size is obviously less than the radius of the circular saw blade. Consequently, when larger laminates are being used, it has been the practice, such as in European Patent Application 86200253.2, to cut a first kerf downwardly from the upper edge of the workpiece as far as the dimensions of the circular saw will permit. The circular saw is then raised above or otherwise removed from the workpiece and the workpiece is rotated 180 degrees to present its previously lower surface in the upward position facing the circular saw which is then reactivated and cuts downwardly to form a second kerf which will merge with the first kerf. The foregoing procedure is time-consuming and does not always result in satisfactory results since the second kerf does not always precisely line up with the first kerf.
Other stone cutter devices have employed closed-loop diamond impregnated band saws as in U.S. Pat. No. 4 063 982 or wire cutters mounted on a pair of spaced pulleys for cutting stone members and the like as the wire is continuously moved in a closed loop and progressed forwardly through the stone being cut in a direction perpendicular to the flight of the wire effecting the cut. However, devices of this type have not been considered to be suitable for forming stone-honeycomb laminae due to the fact that the cutter flight of the wire cutter is relatively long and would not be operable with the workpiece handling equipment of the type employed in the above-discussed circular saw apparatus.
Prior to the present invention, the largest honeycomb-stone-honeycomb sandwich laminate workpiece that could be cut to provide two stone-honeycomb panels of the same length and width as the workpiece was nine feet six inches long and 60 inches wide. Thus, the size of the final work product was limited. Since architectural laminate stone panels are used for wall coverings in office buildings and the like, aesthetic enhancement and substantial savings in labor and other mounting expense could be achieved by the use of larger panels. Therefore, there has been a demand for larger panels which, prior to the present invention, had not been met by the prior art apparatus and methods.
Therefore, it is the main object of the present invention to provide a new and improved apparatus and method for cutting honeycomb-stone-honeycomb sandwich laminae into two stone-honeycomb laminae finished products.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of an improved method and apparatus for providing stone-honeycomb laminae by a single uninterrupted cutting operation without any intermediate workpiece manipulation being required.